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Friday, March 1, 2013

Romantical Fridays: Planting The Seed

"I'm really excited to see what happens when you finally start living your life."

Have you ever said something to someone only to find out later that your words changed his life?

Those words, uttered one morning over breakfast, became the catalyst for everything that was to happen next.

The truth was, I was hoping to motivate him. I knew he was meant to do more than clean bathroom stalls at a grocery store. I saw what was in him and I wanted him to see it too.

Of course I had no idea until many months later that it was my words that morning that had pushed him into action.

Blue Eyes has always believed we were meant for more. Not just he and I, but all of us. You. Me. Everyone. From day one, he had expressed a discontent with the American way of life, a feeling of being trapped by his surroundings.

I don't think he ever knew where to channel that energy though. He knew he wanted to make a change, but he didn't know his part in it.

"I'm really excited to see what happens when you finally start living your life."

I think that's when he knew it was time. Maybe he didn't know yet what he needed to do or where his journey would lead him, but he knew he was ready. He quit his job and moved out of his apartment - and temporarily into my house. Not surprisingly, it has been a long and very winding road ever since. A blurry road, really.

I hope I'm not giving myself too much credit here. I suppose he'll tell me if I am. But I think I inadvertently gave him a window into a different world. When I was at Bastyr studying holistic nutrition, my housemates were studying herbal medicine and permaculture design. One housemate built a greenhouse in the backyard. She and another housemate designed a compost system. A third housemate eventually began to raise chickens. And a fourth left our home and went on a journey that began by working and living on a farm nearby.

She took Blue Eyes with her.

(With my blessing, of course.)

That was the first time Blue Eyes left me to go study permaculture and what he now felt was his mission. When he came back, I could tell that things had changed. I could tell he had changed. I had encouraged him to start living his life and he had.

3 comments:

Ah, a perfect example of "If you love something, set it free. If it comes back, it is yours. If it doesn’t, it never was." ~ Unknown I bet your statement that motivated Blue Eyes could be applied to so many people. Looking forward to the next part ... as always!